148 FUNGI. 



pretended spores, he writes, are formed of two large conical cells, 

 opposed by their base and easily separating. They vary in length. 

 The membrane of which they are formed is thin and completely 

 colourless in most of them, though much thicker and coloured 

 brown in others. It is principally the spores with thin mem- 

 branes that emit from near the middle very obtuse tubes, into 

 which by degrees, as they elongate, the contents of the parent 

 utricles pass. Each of the two cells of the supposed spore may 

 originate near its base four of these tubes, opposed to each other 

 at their point of origin, and their subsequent direction ; but it is 

 rather rare for eight tubes, two by two, to decussate from the 

 same spore or basidium. Usually there are only two or three 



Fig. 88.— Germinating pseudospores of Podisoma JunipeH. (Tulasne.) 



which are completely developed, and these tend together towards 

 the surface of the fungus, which they pass, and expand at liberty 

 in the air. The tubes generally become thicker by degrees as 

 they elongate, some only slightly exceeding the length of the 

 protospores. Others attain three or four times that length, 

 according to the greater or less* distance between the protospore 

 and the surface of the plant. In the longest tubes it is easy to 

 observe how the colouring matter passes to their outer extremity, 



closely Puccinia, from which it is chiefly distinguished by its revivescent 

 character. 



